Improvement in railroad-gar brakes



. L. KIRK. AIR BRAKE.

' No. 23,923. Patented May 10, 1859.

UNITED v STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

LEWIS KIRK, OF READING, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT. IN n AlLRoAn-CA'R BRAKES.,

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,923., dated May l0,1859.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEWIS KIRK, of the city of Beading, in the county ofBerks and State o of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Imsection ofa -railroad-car with my brake arrangement, the line .fr x, Fig. 2,indicating the plane of section. Fig. 2 is a' plan or top view of thesame, in which theplatform of the car hasbeen removed. Fig. '3 is ahorizontal sec tion of the pumpwhich I use for operating the brakes, theline y y, Fig'. 4, indicating the plane of section; and Fig. 4 vis atransverse vertical section of this pump, taken in the plane indicatedby the line z z, FigLB.

Similar letters of reference in the several Iigures indicatecorresponding parts of my invention. t v

The object of this invention is to employ hydrostatic pressure for thepurpose of operating the brakes of a railroad-car; and the inventionconsists in a peculiar construction of the pumps employed and in acertain arrangement of rods, levers, `and arms, in connection with thepumps, both of which will be hereinafter described, so that the pumpsmay be operated eitherby a hand-wheel or by means of the pressure withwhich the cars act on the couplings. ,Y

To enable others skilledin the art to fully understand and construct myinvention, I will proceedto describe the saine.

A is the platform of a'railroad-'canof the usual construction, and apump, B, is attached to the under side of this platform andabout in thecenter of thesame. This pump consists of onemaiu cylinder, O, with twopistons and` two pump-cylinders, D D', the bore of which is considerablysmaller than the bore of the main cylinder G. The interior arrangementof this pump is clearly represented in Figs,v 3 and 4. 'The threecylinders-C and D D' are connected by passages a a and b b', which extend from thevalve-chambers c c7x c' c'* to cavities d, from whichpassages c run through to the interior of the main cylinder C and tothat parti, d', of the same which is left free between its two pistons,and other passages, a* and b*,

extend from the upper part ofthe valve-chambers c c* c' c'* to, thoseparts of the main cylinder which are on the outside of its pistons. Thevalvechambers c 0*-, as well as those c' cii, communicate by means ofcocks E and E', as' represented-in Fig. 4. The lower part of thevalve-chamber c extends into a cavity, e, which communicates with thepassage f in the cock E, and the cavity e at the same time communicateswith the cavity g, from which a passage, hjleads'into the interior`ofthe main cylinder C. The valvecha'mber c* communicates with a cavity,6*, which communicates with -another cavity, gif, 'from which'a passage,if, leads on one side intothe interior of the main cylinder, and on theother side into the pas-v sage f in the cock E. If theco'cks E and E'are turned to such a positionjthat thel passagef is not in communicationwith the valvechambers, thewater forced by the pistons of thepumpfcylinders is forced through the passages a a l b b* to the outer.ends'oi' the mainl cylinder, and its pistons are forced together.- If,however, the cocks E E are in a position as represented in Fig. 4, theWater forced by one of the pumpcylinders runs right through to theotherone and circulates through the pump without affecting the pistons ofthemain cylinders. In the first case, the water taken from the part d'between the pistons of the main cylinder is used to force the twopistons together. In the latter case the water drawn `in by one ofthepump-cylinders from the space d returns to the same through the passagef without moving the pistons of the main cyliuder. By opening the cocksE E' the pressure which may act on the outsideof these pistons Lis takenoff in an instant.

The piston-rods c2 c of the two pistons C and 03 of the main-cylinderconnect with Ythe levers F F', and the lever F,which is attached to thebeam H by means of an arm, fl, connecting with the brakes F* of thetruck I by means of rodsf' and f2.' In the same manner the lever F',which is attached to the beam H' bymeans of Van arm, f'd, connects withthe brakes F'* of the truck I'. are placed on cach of the rods c2 andwhich force the pistons back as soonas the pressure is taken o', whichis done by opening the cocks E and E'. Thepiston-rods d. and d3 of thepump-cylinders extend out ori/different sides, and the piston-rod 0l2 isconnected to a crank, j,which is attached toa vertical axle, J,whichSpiral springs i may be rotated by means of ahandwheel,-J,

the cock E by means of a bel1-crank, e2, and a rod, e*, so that the cockE' isclosed by depressing the rod K with the foot. v-vThe pistonrod d"ion the other Side has its bearing in the cross-beam H', and it isprovidedwith a spring'- catch, k, which works in a slot made into a`square part, (ZW, of the piston-rod, and which is attached to the sameby means of a pivot, k. A spring, l, serves to raise the catch k, and abell-crank, Z, which is hinged to the crossbeam H', extends withvone ofits arms, Z, through the vslot in the square part 13:1 of the pistonrodd3. The other arm, Z2, ofthe bell-crank Z is attached to aneccentricring, m, which fits over an eccentric-disk, en', on the axle nof one ofthe wheels, W, in the truck I'. It' the catch It' is raised,the arm Z' of the bell-crank Z, which has a vibrating motion by theeccentric, moves without touching the same; vbut if the catch k isdepressed into the slot in which it is fastened the arm Z strikesagainst the same and the pistonrod d receives a reciprocating motion,whereby the water is forced into the main cylinder C if the cock E is inthe proper position.

The catch k is operated upon by means of a cam, O, which is attached toa rod, p, which extends through the whole length of the car,- andanother cam, g, is fastened on this rod,y which works in a socket, r,which is attached to a rod, s. This rod has one of its bearings in theplatform of the car and the other one in a hanger, t, and it extendsbeyond the platform, so that it can be depressed by the foot.- The lowerend of the rod s is connected to a crank, u,'by which the cock E isoperated. A hand-lever, L, is attached to one end of the rod p, andtothe other end of the same the coupling M isaattachcd,w hich is soarranged that by pressing on the same the rodrp is turned sufficientlyto close the cock E and to depress the'catch k. In this case thepump-cylinder D will force Water into the main cy1inder,and the brakeswill be applied until the Wheel W, to the axle of which the eccentric mis attached, ceases to revolve. In the same manner 'by turningv thehand-lever L the catch L' may be depressed, and as the cock E is closedat -the, same time by the action of the cam q ou the rod s the pump-cylinder D begins to operate and the brakes are applied until thewheel W ceases to revolve.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, Aand desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The arrangement of the hand wheel J and the rod K,v in combinationwith the pump B,

so that bydepressing the rod K the pump is placed in working order, andthat the same can be operated by means of the hand-wheel J',substantially as described.

2. The arrangement of the spring-catch k, which is attached to thepiston-rod d3 of one ofthe pump cylinders, in combination with 4 thebell-crank Z, or its equivalent,'which is operated by means of aneccentric, m', substantially as and for the purposeset forth.

3. Arranging the conpling'M on a rod, p, in such relation to thespring-catch k and to the cock E that by exercising a ,pressure on thecoupling the rod p is .turned sufiiciently to open the cock E and todepress the springcatch k, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

LEWIS KIRK.

Witnesses:

J con ScHoENER, WM. B. SCHOENER.

